In Jesus’ day we saw a great divide between those who aggressively defended the longstanding religious systems and those who opted to step outside the pattern to follow Jesus
A 🧵 His incarnation was a stark delineation between a long dead but staunchly defended (though toxic) religious system and the constant flow of Life offered by Jesus to any who would come to Him

The confusion comes from a misunderstanding of what Jesus opposed and what He offered

I am saddened at the things that I see happening that are labeled as "Christianity" or even "following Christ"
but it may not be what you think...a 🧵 The set up for Jesus coming to Earth began with two trees. The tree of Life & the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil
Jesus came to offer a return to the Tree of Life (I have come that you might have life) and we spend a lot of energy climbing either branch of the other tree

Hillsong Doc
Rise & Fall of Mars Hill
Willow Creek/BillHybels
Etc
Etc
Etc
How do we reconcile this epidemic? What is wrong with Christianity?
That question is part of the problem. Unless we ask it to truly discover instead of to accuse and bail out.

Can we thread for a minute? Since the 1990's it has been my quest & assignment to help people find genuine freedom since it seemed to be the mission of Jesus I made it mine as well
In 30 years I've had to look through different eyes to find meaningful answers
You could say I began deconstructing 30 yrs ago

When I teach about freedom I often get this question,
“So are you saying that behavior doesn’t matter? It’s OK if people sin?”

I get that question because of the confusion around what I consider to be the central issue of Christianity
——🧵 I often say “our version of Christianity is to ‘Sin-centric’”

Meaning we focus on/evaluate by our outward behavior, often to our behavior

The central issue is not our outward behavior but rather the Source of our behavior

Does it come from willpower (me)
Or from Christ in me?

Matrix review:

The Matrix was a complete story & one of the best teachings on the Kingdom I’ve known
Matrix 2 & 3 were strange fiction written by people who didn’t seem to understand the meaning of the 1st
I went w low expectations While the writing was mediocre, the primary story line is key… I loved that part

(Spoiler warning)
Neo and Trinity had survived…revived by the machines because of the power produced by their union

The current grass roots movement of deconstruction is the harvest of decades of planting.
It’s the visible branches of a reformation that has been brewing for a very long time
The ingredients are not a simple recipe, but the recipe is important Even the recent conditions that propelled many to finally move are only the precedent but not the cause
The reformation has been necessary and long coming
And like the “Great Reformation “ this one is also a response to the ongoing calcification of the knowledge of good and evil

Around the time I released my first book (2010) I remember a group of young bloggers who represented the newer more compassionate face of christianity
I always remember the story one of them told about his friend from another religion who asked if he thought she was going to hell I remember the story highlighting the tension of "I have friends who are different than me" versus, how do I stay true to my beliefs when confronted with a black and white question when the answer could be hurtful
I also remember being saddened by his "resolution" of this tension

Joining the chorus of therapy Twitter saying that popularizing clinical terms minimizes & distorts important psychological descriptors & exaggerates common experiences

Being “triggered” isn’t being upset or bothered, it’s a return to a trauma state locked in the nervous system Being a Narcissist is not simply about being self-centered.
It is a pervasive and chronic state with an exaggerated sense of self-importance
It relates to others with a vampire-like need to consume others (either admiration or hatred) emotions for their sense of being

Grooming (an abusers process to gain inroads to victims & allies) is by definition subtle

It utilizes the emotional investments & deeply held beliefs of it's victim to convince them that they are passionately choosing something, when they are actually being manipulated Grooming uses the sympathies, emotional ties, and emotional needs of a victim to convince them that they are choosing a good and righteous path
It is difficult to convince someone, once groomed, that they are on a dangerous path

(Thread) This recent series of events with Josh Harris illustrates some crucial and often un-recognized dynamics of the spiritual abuse. Specifically the unwillingness or inability of perpetrators and onlookers to even see, much less considering the victim(s) and their experience For those who may not know, Josh Harris, decades ago wrote a book which significantly contributed to and made him a major figure in a cult-ure known as "Purity Culture". An idea and culture which did great harm to the thought processes and self image of a generation

In the year of Jesus birth we can see several things that illuminate the struggles of modern Christianity to point people to Jesus, "God with Us"

1. People interpret God through material thought processes and miss that He is a spiritual God. Jesus was a king over reality and human hearts, not over structures and institutions. His "government" healed bodies, hearts, relationships and all manner of human broken-ness

When social media first emerged it was a wonderful opportunity to broaden connections and maintain contact with people I value
Sadly it has become an incredibly anti-social mechanism in our culture
I still deeply value the contact and connections... But I am incredibly frustrated and honestly worried about the other things I see

No where else are people so prone to generalize and demonize others, giving themselves permission to despise and hold in contempt both groups and individuals

To my human friends
This is a very important time in human history
Please stay in connection
Do not lose your highest self Stay in connection to your self
Without that no other connection is possible
Know your heart and know your inner thoughts
Do not lose yourself in the chaos

The most common responses to our circumstances are feeling fear & the sense of powerlessness
The two are related
We believe we can control things (feel powerful)
& this will prevent fear
While many things are out of your control, let's look at several things you can control: Most importantly, you can control your willingness to examine your own beliefs. This is the foundation of growth & change
If the beliefs you hold result in fear, you have the power to examine them
Most of the time, it's not circumstances that cause fear but our beliefs about them

Much of why I think the way I do is because my specialty is communication.
When we allow words to become idols our thoughts become rigid and inflexible.
When we recognize the Gospel is Divine Communication and look through that lens, it can shift many things The exchange between God and man is rife with communication errors and they are all on our side.
I would submit that mankind left the Garden with multiple filters (Knowledge of Good and Evil) that set us up for these specific communication errors.

At the root of all that goes wrong in the Church is this paradigm called “The Knowledge of Good and Evil” a system of thought based on relating to God (or religious systems) through naturally derived knowledge about what one should do and what one should not do. Whether literal people ate literal fruit, or Genesis is using archetypes, the account of man’s move away from God & towards destructive thought process is described as “eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” representing a departure from the Tree of Life

my timeline is filled with the carnage of the impact of all the shame-inducing teaching about things that are “sinful”
I am convinced that this teaching results from a misunderstanding of what Adam and Eve did, it’s impact and Bible translations based on that misunderstanding The idea that humans, our bodies, our needs etc (All things created BY and In The Image Of God) are somehow bad, wicked or dirty is absolutely contradictory to the creation account. God Himself said His work was very good.

It merits repeating often. The misperception is so pervasive and therefore maintains the dynamic of abuse through generations.
Abuse does not look as people expect. Victims often don't realize they are victims, they see themselves as helpers
Abusers don't see themselves as abusers, they believe they have minor or no problems and if the victim would change everything would be fine.

1/20 Think Differently is not simply a “Brand” I have chosen.
It is the best way I know to really describe simply what I believe.

For a while though, I have wanted to express more cohesively and overtly what I believe.
Here are my key beliefs 2/20 The Bible is Inspired (God’s Breath through human minds)
And Inerrant (w/out error)
this doesn't mean I believe every English word should be taken as literal, concrete & prescriptive
I'm too much of a communication & word nerd to oversimplify the communication of the Divine

1/7 Why does it matter so much to recognize that the foundation of all abuse is the inappropriate assignment of responsibility?
Separate of that understanding, any attempt to fix abuse may actually propagate secondary abuse. 2/7 When an organization protects an abusive leader, they either fail to realize, or overtly embrace that, their support of the abuser communicates that the victims or truth-tellers are responsible for the problem. At this point victims who speak up are labeled as “the problem”

1/12 A meaningful element of the culture of misogyny that is often overlooked is the contempt for, or at least lack of value of, the traits that are more classically considered feminine, like nurture, empathy and the general value of the emotional attributes of the soul. 2/12 Misogyny, while most often considered the “hatred of women” is also a hatred for those qualities that are considered maternal. Misogynists see emotions and empathy as soft, weak, or even a result of the fall of man.